The second debate between Arizona Senator John McCain and Illinois Senator Barack Obama in their quest for the Presidency happens tonight in Nashville, TN on the campus of Belmont University.
Here is a little bit of What To Watch For (W2W4):
The format for this debate is the infamous “town hall style,” which doesn’t even remotely resemble a Town Hall meeting in the slightest fashion. All of the questions have been submitted in advance through the Internet and Tom Brokaw, interim host of “Meet The Press,” will moderate this contest.
Tuesday’s match-up at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., will be moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, with the questions to be culled from a group of 100 to 150 uncommitted likely voters in the audience and another one-third to come via the Internet. The Gallup Organization — as in past debates like this — has the job of making sure the questioners reflect the demographic makeup of the nation.
Brokaw selects the questions to ask from written queries submitted prior to the debate, according to the “contract.”
An audience member will not be allowed to switch questions. Under the deal, the moderator may not ask followups or make comments. The person who asks the question will not be allowed a follow-up either, and his or her microphone will be turned off after the question is read. A camera shot will only be shown of the person asking — not reacting.
While there will be director’s chairs (with backs and foot rests), McCain and Obama will be allowed to stand — but they can’t roam past their “designated area” to be marked on the stage. McCain and Obama are not supposed to ask each other direct questions.
As in all the debates, the contenders cannot bring in notes, though they can take them once at the lectern.
In the first debate, Obama started off somewhat strong, but McCain eventually owned the last sixty minutes once talk moved toward the topic of national security and defense. While both candidates dropped some whoppers, many people thought that McCain had a larger gap to overcome. A tie for him (which is what I think he achieved) was really a win in that sense.
Translation: They are already trying to set the bar low for Obama because he’s not great at speaking extemporaneously. The lower they set the bar in advance of the debate, the bigger they can draw the win in the Spin Room.
With the way they’ve been spinning this tonight, the Obama camp can’t set the bar any lower. It’s just not physically possible. Look for the “Obama Wins” email to go out before the debate is over.
Much like the last debate, McCain needs to ignore Obama and not make eye contact with him. This debate is all in the way the candidate looks in answering the audience member’s question and he’s well aware that’s his focal point. It won’t stop the Obama supporters from crying that McCain has disrespected Obama by not even looking at him, however.
McCain needs to keep the snark to a minimum. Any time he laughs at his own joke is bad. Mac would be well-served by trying to skip the one-liners and just focus solely on Obama’s record (or lack thereof).
John McCain won’t want to talk about the economy, but he’ll have to. He’ll go right back to pork spending an earmarks and that’s probably his best play here.
Obama, however, has to be careful he doesn’t step on a land mine tonight.
In the last debate, he stammered and tried to cut in and he had been totally knocked off his game by John McCain. He’ll try to avoid that tonight, but any forum where Barack is timed and he’s got to respond off the cuff is a dangerous one.
As my
Obama Buzzword Bingo cards point out, he’ll probably stick to a pretty tight script. He’ll have to—any deviation from standard means he’ll start stammering again, and this is the worst format for him to do that in.
The debate begins tonight at 9:00 PM EDT on just about every network there is and is also available in high definition.
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